Acknowledgements

I wish to convey my sincerest gratitude to those who gave interviews between September 2023 and February 2024: Ajay Agrawal, Ron Baecker, Tom Corr, Todd Cunningham, Chris Damaren, Keri Damen, Elya Djaffar, Mark Fox, Jonathan French, Cynthia Goh, Gray Graffam, Donna Heslin, Liam Kaufman, Helen Kontozopoulos, Mark Kortschot, Darren Lum, Scott Mabury, Andrew Maxwell, Rich McAloney, Bill McConkey, Leo Mui, Derek Newton, Efosa Obano, Joseph Paradi, Stephanie Perpick, Elisabeth Rees-Johnstone, Jonathan Rose, Mayrose Salvador, Paul Santerre, Kurtis Scissons, Francis Shen, Donna Shukaris-Walker, Paul Young, David Zingg, David Zweig, and four anonymous participants. I wish I could have included all the stories and details you took the time to share.  

Thank you to all the interviewees who provided historical documents and images, as well as Alison Bruce, Ryan Cerrudo, David Lee, Steve Engels, Carol Deneka, Sophie Stuart-Sheppard, Mimi Hao, and City of Toronto Archives staff.

I was inspired to look at the history of entrepreneurship at U of T after attending Cynthia Goh’s presentation at the Impact Centre’s “Entrepreneurial Work-Integrated Learning: Beyond Incubation” symposium in September 2019. I cannot hope to approach the quality of Christopher James Rutty’s excellent history of Connaught Labs digital exhibit. Kristjan Sigurdson’s 2013 thesis on the Innovations Foundation introduced me to the Exceler@tor and provided valuable context. Extra special thanks to Jonathan French, Cynthia Goh, Paul Gries, Adriana Ieraci, Leo Mui, Jonathan Rose, and Paul Santerre for their enthusiasm and insights as I planned this research project.  

Endless gratitude to my UTL colleagues Kelli Babcock, Leslie Barnes, Jesse Carliner, Tys Klumpenhouwer, Andrea McCutcheon, Stephanie Perpick, Sean Queenan, Paulina Rousseau, Emily Sommers, Elena Springall, and Mindy Thuna for lending time, support, and expertise throughout the process. And to Christina Kim and Helen Kula for their mentorship and guidance from the start.